| Command | Description |
|---|---|
pwd |
Show current directory |
mkdir dir |
Make directory called dir |
mkdir -p folder/folder2 |
Make a directory folder and another directory folder2 in it |
cd dir |
Change directory to dir |
cd .. |
Go up a directory |
cd |
Change to home directory |
ls |
List contents of directory |
ls -r |
Reverse list contents of directory |
ls -t |
List contents of directory based on time |
ls -al |
Formatted list of contents for the directory including hidden files |
rm file |
Delete file |
rm -r dir |
Delete directory dir |
rm -f file |
Forcibly delete the file |
rm -rf dir |
Forcibly delete the directory dir |
rm -rfv dir |
Forcibly delete the directory dir with verbose output |
cp file1 dir |
Copy file1 to inside of dir |
mv file1 dir |
Move/Cut file1 to inside of dir |
touch file |
Create file |
cat file |
Show the Contents of file |
head file |
Display first 10 lines of files |
tail file |
Display last 10 lines of files |
gpg -c file |
Encrypt a file |
gpg file |
Decrypt a file |
wc |
Show the Number of words,lines,bytes in file |
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
chmod octal file |
Change the permissions of file to octal for user, group and world by adding: 4 - read( r ), 2 - write( w ), 1- execute ( x ) |
chmod 777 file |
Read, write, execute for all |
chmod 755 file |
rwx for owner, rx for group and world. |
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
sudo command |
Runs command as root. (If a command requires a higher permission you might have to run it with sudo) |
su |
Runs an interactive shell as root |
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
ssh user@host |
Connect to host as user |
ssh -p port user@host |
Connect to host on port port as user |
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
date |
Show the system date and time |
cal |
Show this month's calendar |
uptime |
Show system's uptime |
free |
Display amount of free and used memory in the system |
w |
See who is online |
whoami |
See who you are logged in as |
uname -a |
Show kernel information |
man command |
Show the manual for any command (exit with q) |
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
Ctrl + A |
Moves the cursor to the start of a line |
Ctrl + E |
Moves the cursor to the end of the line |
Ctrl + F |
Move one character forward |
Ctrl + B |
Move one character backward |
Ctrl + L |
Clear the terminal screen |
Ctrl + C |
Halts the current command |
Ctrl + D |
Log out of current session |
Ctrl + W |
Erases one word in current line |
Ctrl + U |
Erases entire line |
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
nano file |
nano is a small and friendly editor |
vi file |
vi is a powerful text editor where every action is done though the keyboard. How to exit vim/vi (Trust me you'll need to know it) |
vim file |
vim - Vi IMproved is an improved version of the vi editor. Like vi, every action is done through the keyboard. |
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
tar cf archive.tar directory |
Create tar named archive.tar containing directory |
tar xf archive.tar |
Extract the contents from archive.tar |
tar czf archive.tar.gz directory |
Create a gzip compressed tar file name archive.tar.gz |
tar xzf archive.tar.gz |
Extract a gzip compressed tar file |
tar cjf archive.tar.bz2 directory |
Create a tar file with bzip2 compression |
tar xjf archive.tar.bz2 |
Extract a bzip2 compressed tar file |
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
df -h |
Show free and used space on mounted filesystems |
df -i |
Show free and used inodes on mounted filesystems |
fdisk -l |
Display disks partitions sizes and types |
du -ah |
Display disk usage for all files and directories in human readable format |
du -sh |
Display total disk usage off the current directory |
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
grep pattern file |
Search for pattern in file |
grep -r pattern directory |
Search recursively for pattern in directory |
locate name |
Find files and directories by name |
find /home/xyz -name 'prefix*' |
Find files in /home/xyz that start with "prefix" |
find /home -size +100M |
Find files larger than 100MB in /home |
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
env |
Displays all environment variables |
echo $VARIABLE |
Displays value of variable |